Approach

Personas

SewnR knew that their returning users were comprised of two main groups. The first group consisted of young professionals who would use the app to find local events happening around them while traveling on business. The second was made up of college-age users (most of whom had a self-identified “strong” social media presence) returning to the app to find independent events happening near them.

The SewnR team had also identified two new target user segments they wanted to pursue in V2: young parents looking for family-friendly events, and event coordinators/business owners looking to promote their events.

With this data, I created four key personas to help align the SewnR team on their user's needs and motivations. The personas included Alex the young processional, Jamie the social media butterfly, Logan the family woman, and Taylor the event coordinator.

Identifying requirements

Once the personas had been created, SewnR’s CEO and I were able to perform an audit of SewnR’s current offering as well as it’s competitors. We needed to create a sticky experience that would create a hook for all users to continue returning to the app.

There were several problem areas we had identified within the current SewnR UI. SewnR didn’t have a method of organically surfacing local events to users without the user explicitly searching. This created a discoverability problem for users who wanted to browse for local events and prevented users from discovering events organically.

The app was also missing a critical social element. SewnR was meant to be a social event mapping app, but it was difficult to connect to friends inside the application. There was also no mechanism in the app to share activity or content with other users.

As the audit period came to a close, we had identified a wishlist of key features that would help address current user needs, and aid in attracting and retaining new users. SewnR V2 would be revamped to focus on nearby event discoverability, connecting users and enabling the sharing of activity, and a streamlined onboarding process.

Information Architecture

SewnR’s V2 focus and new feature set meant that the information architecture of the entire application had to be rethought. The V1 application had no top-level navigation and instead dropped users into a map of their location on the first launch. SewnR’s V2 release would need a robust navigation system to accommodate the new functionality. 

I began by creating a simple information architecture diagram. From there I mapped to-be flows and interactions of every major navigation category. This allowed the SewnR team to visualize how the new application’s functionality would fit together to create a cohesive experience. It also allowed the development team to begin drafting a plan to implement the forthcoming designs.

Wireframes

After gaining alignment between the c-level and development teams on the new to-be flows of the app, I began creating wireframes. Each wire included ideal, loading, error, and empty states. The wires included detailed annotations explaining each interaction. 

As wireframes were completed, they were shared with the SewnR teams. Several Q&A and collaborative feedback and ideation sessions were scheduled, and within a few weeks the final wires were completed and handed off.